DAWless for techno production

we make hardware only techno and it does not sound bad at all. without mixing an a daw. Its all about having a feeling an if it sounds right in the venue or room you are playing

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Considering the popularity of DAWs coincided with the decline of vinyl, itā€™s safe to say that most techno ever pressed on wax was probably made without a DAW. So many great tracks.

So yea. Of course it is possible. Keep at it. Make every next track better than the last and youā€™ll get there eventually.

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Most of the modern techno (ones you see in HATE podcasts like you mentioned) is basically lots of rumble bass, sidechaining (ducking), and several other carrying elements that make the song levitate. So whether you get there by DAW or DAWless is not that important if you get them sit right in the mix.

When working with the boxes you mention above, do you use sidechaining or gate? Maybe the sounds you produce donā€™t sound like shit but if they occupy the same area in the spectrum, the sound can easily become muddy, which makes you add even more stuff to an already overcrowded mix. I would break down the elements first and make sure that itā€™s not a mixing problem. Donā€™t forget to leave some headroom too.

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Most labels will have, or work with a dependable mastering engineer for their releases that may have a treated room, outboard desk, preamps, compressors, or they may just have Ozone and lots of experience.
Sometimes itā€™s just getting a second pair of ears and quality control.
You can certainly create quality work without a DAW. The trick is learning mixing skills and knowing how it will translate across mediums.
Donā€™t be an idiot like me and self-master, unless you are really enjoy repeated facepalming yourself

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all the bad stuff :wink:

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Yes, ā€œfinding your own soundā€ is a good thing, donā€™t be afraid to break molds

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Kickdrums are overrated these days!

Thats the best advise i can give

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thatā€™s really a short time span
And without judging - a lot of boxes to get your head around in a very short time.
Maybe focus just on one or two boxes for now. Concentrate on finishing tracks.
Donā€™t care too much how good they sound for now. Just make track after track.
They will get better over time naturally.

And do it for the joy of doing it. Not for the hypothetical label release.
Labels are often overrated anyway

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Now i focused on Digitakt-Octatrack-a4 mini setup. Hope it will work with soundscapes i made in DAW by Lyra and DFAM
Probably trying a some modular stuff

Thanks for advice! Will add more space in my mixes

that most likely wonā€™t get you closer to better sounding tracks :slightly_smiling_face:
You have more than enough to practice

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I agree, focus on the OT by itself and learn it thouroughly (when muscle memory kicks in) then add A4, etc. OT has a way of really honing mixing skills of full tracks in that one box.

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You have a lot of gear for someone who started only 6 months ago. you sure youā€™re not just GASsing hard and kind of losing touch with what you should actually be learning? You can make record worthy techno with the A4 alone you know.

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Some GAS in my life last few month, its true :scream:

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Go back to your First gear and learn ist.

Just was today at the copy Shop to get the digitakt 1.3 manual :wink:

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I bought synthdawg manual of digitakt - great book. And it updated on 1.30!

Did you study ist already?

By youtube and books. In my city no schools of electronic music. And some online courses of it in my country is not about techno. Probably i buying some masterclass of one of the my country techno producer

I studied digitakt and octatrack more then another my boxes

If I were you, I would simplify the setup. Dont sell, nyt definitely box the A4 and Octatrack for now, theyre not beginner friendly. Download some 808 or 909 Sample packs, load them to your DT and concentrate on the DFAM and Lyra8. Thats a great setup for techno, and once you manage a couple of bangers with that setup, add a new sound source. You abslotely will get way over your head if your first two devices are the Octatrack and Analog Four.

Based on my limited knowledge of techno its more about the feel rather than technique, you would be better off just listening to a ton of classic pre-daw producers and analyzing what theyre doing rather than paying some local hot shot to yeah you for half a day.

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I started really trying to make decent tracks about 4 years ago.

In the last 12 months Iā€™ve finished about 80 tracks.

Of those 80, Iā€™m happy with about 10.

Of those 10, not one is good enough for a ā€œprofessionalā€ release.

Itā€™s unlikely Iā€™ll ever make anything of the level of quality youā€™re looking to achieve, but Iā€™m having a fucking whale of a time and if I get a few gigs out of it, meet a few like-minded people or whatever, great.

Donā€™t get so wrapped up in an end goal when the real joy is in discovering what you are capable of and just doing it.

Getting good enough to make a career out of all this feels a bit like missing the point about what makes it so good, because doing this ā€œfor a livingā€ will likely suck all the joy out of it.

I remember the first time I made a track I was actually happy with the sound of. I was so happy I cried.
The track sounds like absolute shit, I canā€™t even listen to it now itā€™s so bad, but at the time it represented a real breakthrough for me in terms of finding a workflow that I could enjoy and make satisfying, if not necessarily good, tracks with.

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